Men's Ice Hockey Receives Votes In Two National Polls

Jan 05, 2009

HAMDEN,
Conn.- Following a week that saw the Quinnipiac University men's
ice hockey team win four games in a span of six days, the Bobcats
received votes in two nationally polls, the USCHO.com/CBS Sports
Division I Poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College
Hockey Poll. In both polls, Quinnipiac led the group of other teams
receiving votes.

The
Bobcats, winners of nine of their last 11 games including five
straight, knocked off two nationally ranked teams in No. 11 Air
Force, in the Toyota UConn Hockey Classic Tournament Game, and No.
20 Dartmouth on Saturday night at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.
Quinnipiac is currently 11-6-1 overall.

The
Bobcats received 111 votes in the USCHO.com/CBS Sports Division I
Poll, trailing the University of Minnesota-Duluth who received 118
votes. Quinnipiac received the fourth most votes by an ECAC Hockey
school trailing Princeton, 690 votes for seventh place, Cornell,
673 votes including one first place vote for eighth place and
Dartmouth, 198 votes for 15th place. Yale also received
33 votes in the poll.

In
the USA Today/USA Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll, Quinnipiac
received 18 votes, 20 fewer than Ohio State's 38 votes for the
15th and final spot. Additionally, Quinnipiac was behind
Princeton, who received 332 votes for fifth place, and Cornell, who
received 316 votes including a first place vote, for sixth place.
Dartmouth with 14 votes and Yale with six closed out the ECAC
Hockey field.

The
Bobcats was one of two teams not previously ranked to land in the
top 20 in Insidecollegehockey.com's Power Rankings for Jan. 5. The
Bobcats landed in the No. 17 slot. Quinnipiac also improved to No.
16 in the PairWise Comparison Rankings, which are used to choose
the NCAA Division I Tournament field.

Quinnipiac
entered this
pastweekend
with nine points in ECAC Hockey play and sat in fifth place behind
Harvard and Dartmouth. Following a 5-2 win over Harvardon
Fridayand
a 6-0 win over Dartmouthon
Saturday,
Quinnipiac earned four points and jumped up two spots into third
placein
the league standings.

Individually,Bryan
Leitch(Coquitlam,
B.C.)and
David Marshall(Buffalo,
Minn.) becamethe
first Quinnipiac teammates in the Bobcats' Division I history to
record a goal or an assist in 11 consecutive games.Leitch
currently leads NCAA Division I men's ice hockey in assists (23),
assists per game (1.28), points (31) and points per game
(1.72).

Against
#11 Air Force, Marshall scored his 100th career point with his 60th
career goal. Marshall became just the fourth player in
Quin­nipiac's Division I history to reach the 60-goal mark and
the 10th player all-time at QU. In addition, he is the 28th player
all-time at Quinnipiac to score 100 points and the 15th player at
the DI level.With
10 goals and 12 assists through 18 games, Marshall is the first
ECAC Hockey player this season to reach double figures in both
scoring categories. He is also one of just 10 players in NCAA
Division I men's ice hockey with double figures in both stat
categories and the only playerto
do so in fewer than 19 games.

This
season, Quinnipiac is 10-0-0 in games in which it is leading after
the second period. In their last 31 games, dating back to last
season, Quinnipiac is undefeated at 28-0-3 when playing with a lead
heading into the final frame.